The present invention relates to a technique that performs sound processing on data received from a terminal apparatus and returns the processed data to the terminal apparatus through a communication network.
There is a technique which allows a sound processing apparatus (server apparatus) communicating with a terminal apparatus to perform various kinds of sound processing as a proxy (for example, Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2). The sound processing apparatus performs sound processing on a waveform file received from the terminal apparatus and transmits the processed file to the terminal apparatus. According to the above-mentioned technique, the terminal apparatus can use the file generated by sound processing (for example, reproduce a sound subjected to the sound processing) without installing hardware or software required for sound processing in the terminal apparatus.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-10-177380    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-11-085148
However, when a system that allows the sound processing apparatus to perform sound processing as a proxy is constructed in practice, various problems that are not mentioned in Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2 are likely to arise. For example, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 or Patent Document 2, one entire file to be subjected to sound processing is received from the terminal apparatus and then the sound processing apparatus starts sound processing. It takes a long time until the terminal apparatus can actually use the file subjected to sound processing after the user instructs the terminal apparatus to start the process.